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In 1964, following a very stressful overseas trip, Dr. Norman Cousins, a longtime editor of the Saturday Review, a global peacemaker, and recipient of the UN Peace Medal, was diagnosed with a degenerative disease which left him with intense, unending pain. His doctors reluctantly told him that he had only one chance in 500 of recovery and that he would likely be dead in a few months. His...

Reflecting is stopping what you’re doing and taking time to think and maybe write about how it could be done differently or better. According to three research studies performed by the Harvard Business School, people who reflect and think about their tasks perform better, and feel “more capable, competent and able to make good judgements, and are able to solve difficult problems” more...

Our best ideas don’t come when we’re sitting in front of a computer straining to make a project come together. It’s when we get up for a break or take a walk around the block—precisely when our attention wanders away from the task at hand—that the missing piece pops into our heads. Insight almost always comes when an intensely focused mind wanders free, uninhibited by active thought....

Many of history’s greatest thinkers like Julian of Norwich, Galileo, Hypatia, Aristotle, Plato, Teresa of Avila, Shakespeare, and Kepler were dedicated writers. They are remembered in part, because they wrote their ideas down. Over 30,000 pages of Da Vinci’s personal notes were found in his home after his death. Thomas Edison filled 3,000 notebooks of 280 pages each documenting his...

Get up from your desk, leave your cellphone in your office, and take a ten-minute walk every few hours. The effects on creative thought are amazing. Many of history’s most creative thinkers and innovators used daily walks as a way to slow the brain and find new ideas. • Philosopher and theologian Soren Kierkegaard found his daily walks so inspiring he often hurried back to his desk and...

If you want more innovative ideas, pay attention to your dreams. Many creative ideas have arrived, seemingly out of the blue, while someone slept: • Robert Louis Stevenson was intrigued with the concept of good and evil in personality and wanted to write a story around the idea, but a plot would not come. For two days he racked his brain looking for an idea. On the second night, he had a dream...

Is there anything better than a good night’s rest? People who can get by on four hours of sleep sometimes brag about their strength and endurance. But recent scientific studies show that a lack of sleep causes many significant changes in the body and increases your risk for serious health concerns such as obesity, disease, and even early death. Seven to eight hours for longevity The healthy...

Sit Quietly and Think - As discussed previously, slowing the brain enhances creativity. To continue this thought, before you start any creative task, sit quietly and think for 10 minutes about what you’re going to do. This seems somewhat counterintuitive. Doing nothing doesn’t seem like it would help you be more creative with a task, but it often is. There’s good evidence that it works....

Meditation is a habitual process of training your mind to focus and redirect your thoughts. The art and practice of meditation is older than cognitive neuroscience by many centuries; indeed, it is older than science itself. A wealth of evidence demonstrates that if you spend time in meditation, your brain will function more efficiently and you will be less anxious, more creative, and generally...

Slow Down and Pay Attention - Answers are All Around You. Slow Down We live in an age of speed, where faster is seen as better. In your grandparents’ day, if they missed the train, they waited three days for the next one to come by. Now we experience acute anxiety of we miss the first section of a revolving door. Faster is not always better, especially when it comes to thinking. Creativity is...